mchr3k
Member
I live in a flat in Bristol that doesn’t have fiber coverage and the ADSL here only manages 10-20mbit down and ~1mbit up. In July 2023 I got Three’s 5G home broadband and this gave me ~100+ mbit down and ~50+ mbit up which was a huge improvement. Three sent me the NR510E 5G router and I put this on a window sill which has line of sight to a phone mast (which I’m hoping is where my 5G signal comes from).
Over the last month I’ve noticed that my Three 5g home broadband download speeds have gotten much worse. I’ve run multiple speed tests to confirm this and I just ran a speed test on my iphone 13 mini and got 7mbit down and ~50mbit up. Running a speed test on my Macbook Air M1 I got 1mbit down and ~40mbit up. I don’t know why the signal to my Macbook seems to be worse - I’m sitting in the same room as the router.
Is there anything which I can do to improve this? I’m a software engineer so I’m very happy to dive into technical details, but I’ve never had to try and troubleshoot a 5G connection before.
I tried calling Three support but they just read me a script about how I should switch to a 4G router because I don’t have 5G coverage at my address and wouldn’t engage with my question about why the 5G performance at my address has been great for a year and is now much worse, and why I’m still getting good upload speeds but not download speeds.
I’m on Three’s “Home BB 1M Unlimited 5G” plan for ~£26/month and using ~180-250GB/month as I work from home. I get mobile service with EE and I’ve been falling back to tethering to my phone over the last week to get fast enough internet. I’m currently paying EE £15/month for 125GB/month of mobile data so I can’t just switch to tethering long term without upgrading this, and I want to be able to have home wifi without having to tether each device to my phone e.g. if I want to watch something on my laptop / browse the web and have things load quickly.
What are my best options here? EE’s own 5G home broadband options are pretty expensive. It looks like the only option if I want 250GB+/month of data is 500GB/month on a Smart 5G Hub for £100 upfront plus £45/month, for an 18 month contract. Looking at EE’s sim only deals, it looks like I could get unlimited data for £27/month on a 1-month contract (as an existing EE customer), which I guess to use I would just need to buy a 5G router as presumably my Three one will be locked to Three and they’ll want it back when I cancel? It looks like I could get a “ZTE MC888” for £199.99 on Amazon (new) or a “ZTE MC801A” on Amazon (Renewed). Are those reasonable choices, or are there cheaper/better options which I should consider?
Over the last month I’ve noticed that my Three 5g home broadband download speeds have gotten much worse. I’ve run multiple speed tests to confirm this and I just ran a speed test on my iphone 13 mini and got 7mbit down and ~50mbit up. Running a speed test on my Macbook Air M1 I got 1mbit down and ~40mbit up. I don’t know why the signal to my Macbook seems to be worse - I’m sitting in the same room as the router.
Is there anything which I can do to improve this? I’m a software engineer so I’m very happy to dive into technical details, but I’ve never had to try and troubleshoot a 5G connection before.
I tried calling Three support but they just read me a script about how I should switch to a 4G router because I don’t have 5G coverage at my address and wouldn’t engage with my question about why the 5G performance at my address has been great for a year and is now much worse, and why I’m still getting good upload speeds but not download speeds.
I’m on Three’s “Home BB 1M Unlimited 5G” plan for ~£26/month and using ~180-250GB/month as I work from home. I get mobile service with EE and I’ve been falling back to tethering to my phone over the last week to get fast enough internet. I’m currently paying EE £15/month for 125GB/month of mobile data so I can’t just switch to tethering long term without upgrading this, and I want to be able to have home wifi without having to tether each device to my phone e.g. if I want to watch something on my laptop / browse the web and have things load quickly.
What are my best options here? EE’s own 5G home broadband options are pretty expensive. It looks like the only option if I want 250GB+/month of data is 500GB/month on a Smart 5G Hub for £100 upfront plus £45/month, for an 18 month contract. Looking at EE’s sim only deals, it looks like I could get unlimited data for £27/month on a 1-month contract (as an existing EE customer), which I guess to use I would just need to buy a 5G router as presumably my Three one will be locked to Three and they’ll want it back when I cancel? It looks like I could get a “ZTE MC888” for £199.99 on Amazon (new) or a “ZTE MC801A” on Amazon (Renewed). Are those reasonable choices, or are there cheaper/better options which I should consider?























